The Other White House

The name "White Building" suggests something stable and pristine, and indeed it once was. But today it's a dilapidated and dangerous structure that houses more than 2,500 people in central Phnom Penh. The White Building was part of a grand plan to develop and modernize Phnom Penh after independence from France in the 1950s and 60s. Other structures in the works included a national theater, exhibition hall, and museums. The project was also Cambodia's first experiment in providing affordable housing to the working and middle classes, a great need as Phnom Penh's population swelled from 370,000 to a million during that era. In 1975, of course, those teeming masses were marched out of Phnom Penh by Pol Pot and the architectural plan was violently interrupted.

I can only imagine the trauma and desperation among the survivors when they returned to Phnom Penh in 1979. The new puppet government was too busy preparing to dominate and pillage, and didn't do much about basic needs like housing. So structures like the White Building - which had fallen into disrepair - were occupied by their former residents and others in need of shelter. The White Building grew as a community of artists, like a Williamsburg to the East (but maybe less hipster). It has become one of Phnom Penh's most vibrant communities, despite its problems with drugs, prostitution, crime, and decay (imagine children running through staircases with missing guardrails and makeshift add-ons about to collapse).

Today the community is the center of a huge controversy. The government would like to grab this prime real estate and hand it over to China or another partner for luxury development. They do it all the time, often displacing residents with little notice and scant or no compensation. But the White Building is too much a part of the city's history and identity to dismantle so easily. So talks have ensued and some reports indicate that the government will pay the residents $70K per unit to vacate - a hefty sum here. It will probably be far less. Many of the residents want to accept the payout, and who could blame them? Others don't want to leave what has become a creative and tight knit community. Given the venality of the current regime and its flagrant disregard for its citizens, I say take the money and run!

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Food Glorious Food

Okay, time for a lighter interlude after some heavy topics. Food. It's no secret that I'm not a picky eater, but I think even the fussy would take delight in the eclectic, tasty assortment of victuals here in Cambodia. I'm going to let the pictures (all mine, but for a few Google images) do the talking for this post, but here's a key:

Fish "amok," stewed in coconut curry and served in banana leaf bowls; fried potatoes on a stick; fried frog on a stick; sticky rice in a bamboo sheath; sweet mango sticky rice.

Banana flower and fish salad; coconut ice cream in a coconut (of course!); boat noodles with crispy beef stomach; freshly sliced mini-pineapple; fresh tropical fruit galore.

Freshly pressed sugar cane juice; oodles of noodles; fried crickets; fried tarantulas; and more fried goodness - don't know what it was, but it satisfied!

Corruption Curriculum

I haven't said much about Cambodia’s education system – my raison d'être for being here – because it’s so troublingly difficult to encapsulate. This recent Phnom Penh Post headline is a good start: “Corruption curriculum headed to junior high.” Since the article, the new corruption curriculum (with modules like “Is money really everything?”) has made its way from high school down to primary school. Why would fourth graders need to study corruption? Because it’s endemic to the society at every level, including schools.

I knew that bribery and theft are common here – Cambodia ranks 150^th out of 160+ countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. But I was so saddened to learn that children as young as first grade have to pay off their teachers for the privilege of attending school – a nickel or a dime or a quarter each day – or risk being punished, given poor grades, or expelled. Aside from being a degraded practice and depriving poor families of money they cannot spare, this teaches kids from their earliest experiences with schooling that you have to “pay to play.” And it doesn’t stop there. Children routinely buy answers to tests and bribe teachers for good grades and to falsify attendance records so that they can graduate. As part of the anti-corruption measures, the government put a tighter lid on answers to last year’s standardized tests. Scores plummeted and the nation panicked. But it’s a good reality check, I think, and hopefully will lead to more reforms.

In the meantime, Cambodia is turning out students who are woefully unprepared. Those who make it through high school and college have had a deficient academic experience due to the cheating regimen and poor teacher preparation. But of course most don’t even make it that far. Primary school enrollment is strong (over 90%), but many students don’t finish and enrollment in middle and high school drops off sharply. The stats are inconsistent, but it seems that significantly less than half of the population makes it through high school (maybe even less than a quarter).

As an educator, all this makes me want to scream at the teachers. But it’s hard to blame them. They earn on average around $100+ per month (maybe more in the urban centers) and deal with class sizes anywhere from 40 to 80 depending on the region (it’s hard to recruit teachers in the rural areas, where 80 percent of the population live, and class sizes are higher there). So they extract bribes and take on extra jobs just to scrape by. Half of the teachers only have a high school education (a quarter have less than that) and they lack the training and resources to meet the standards we demand in the developed world. It’s estimated that as a result of the Cambodian genocide, between 75 and 80 percent of educators either were killed, died of overwork, or left the country. So the nation has literally been rebuilding its pool of teachers and academics over the past generation from scratch.

I could go on, but the picture is clear and bleak. I wish that I had an opportunity to spend time in schools with children and teachers because I’m sure that this would help me to get past the statistics, humanize the challenges a little more, and see hope in the struggles of the many good people who I’m sure are trying to do the right thing. But alas, official approval from the government bureaucracy for a school visit or interview with teachers is not forthcoming, at least for now, so my ruminations are limited to what I read and hear from others. At least in my meetings with school officials, there is talk about human rights and democracy, child-centered approaches and more teacher training. I hope I’m invited back in a decade and can remark on vast changes in the system. The children deserve it and the nation's future depends on it.

My Buds

Meet Haan and Rathsarin, my buds from the hotel restaurant. They couldn't be sweeter and more welcoming at breakfast each morning. When I chat with these guys and others - tour guides, bartenders - their stories are always similar. They're from the provinces, several hours away, but rent a small room in the city because that's where the work is. They send money home and visit in person every three or four months. Sokom from the lobby was upset this week because his daughter was ill and had to go the hospital, and he couldn't be there. It's a hard life, and I imagine lonely at times. I'm grateful that they're treating me so warmly while I'm far from the people I cherish.

(No) Rules of the Road

I honestly don't know what to say about driving around Phnom Penh. It's a chaos unlike any other I've experienced. Cars, motorbikes, and "tuk-tuks" loaded with people and merchandise - I'm talking about whole families on one motorbike - course through the streets in any and every direction. There's an occasional traffic light or cop, but for the most part vehicles just come at each other at intersections, tie themselves into a knot of people and steel and diesel and shop-wares, and then somehow make it out the other side unscathed. Feel like making a left turn from the right lane, sure! Would it be quicker to drive on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, why not? The most awesome part is that there's no road rage. I've never seen a driver mouth off, hit the horn in anger, or show signs of stress on the road. The expectation is that anything goes, and so there's no problem when anything happens. Dare I say it's kind of fun? I don't want to tempt fate.

Doing Democracy

It's hard to feel like you're making a difference in this very complicated country, but today was encouraging. I've been working with the National Election Committee, the body that oversees Cambodia's electoral process. There are nine members - four from the ruling party, four from an opposition party, and one non-partisan. I'm working with the neutral member (I don't envy his job!) to integrate a human rights approach into a new national civic education curriculum in development. We discussed the rights of women, indigenous people, and people with disabilities; the importance of meaningful youth participation in public life; and the challenge of guiding young people to reconcile human rights rhetoric with the realities of their daily lives. This was powerful in a state that has recently cracked down on NGOs, unions, journalists, political opponents, and ordinary citizens using harsh laws, intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and even assassination. I'm choosing to be hopeful today about the possibility of change for the next generation.

The Cambodian Parliament

So You Think You Can Dance

Saw this lovely traditional dance show earlier in the week. I know, looks kitchy and touristy. True, it wasn't Alvin Ailey, but... The company was created by Arn Chorn-Pond, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge period, who escaped death by playing propaganda music for generals during mass executions. The genocide took the lives of 90 percent of Cambodia’s artists and wiped out centuries of artistic heritage. Now Chorn-Pond and other Cambodian Master Performers are building the tradition back, dance by dance and show by show. Pretty amazing. And there were more costume changes than a Cher concert, so I was definitely satisfied.

Running "Amok"

Just had a delicious lunch - some veggie dumplings and "amok," fish steamed in banana leaves in a coconut-based curry. It cost me about $6.75, which is expensive by Cambodian standards but still a bargain, right? Very satisfying on all levels. After lunch I browsed online and came across an article about Cambodia's emerging middle class. More satisfaction. Until I read down. Though the local economy is improving, around 75 percent of the population live on under $3 per day. The new "middle class," people who spend more than $4 per day, account for just 10 percent of the population. So my lovely dumplings and amok were like two or three days pay for someone here, which in U.S. terms would be a $500-$1,000 lunch. Damn you, World Bank, for dampening my post-lunch happy coma.

Have and Have Not

The juxtaposition of old and new is striking in Phnom Penh. Modern skyscrapers are built adjacent to dilapidated pre-Khmer Rouge housing in which poor people still squat. And coconut vendors - probably living on a few dollars a day - pull their rickshaws along busy roads with SUVs. The notion of "haves and have nots" takes on new meaning here.

Introduction

In addition to delighting or disgusting you – whichever the case may be – with my culinary adventures, I thought I’d take some time  to reflect on my time here in Cambodia in response to curiosity from friends and family. I hope you enjoy!